Anti-euro protesters in Bulgaria tried to storm the EU mission building

Several thousand supporters of Bulgaria's ultranationalist Renaissance party scuffled with police as they attempted to storm the European Union (EU) mission building. This was reported by Reuters on February 22.

According to the agency, several thousand protesters during a rally against the government's plans to introduce the euro next year, chanting "resignation" and "no euro," threw firecrackers, Molotov cocktails and red paint at the EU mission building and set fire to the front door.

"We don't want Bulgaria's financial independence to be destroyed. We want to preserve the Bulgarian lion, we are here to defend our freedom," Revival party chairman Kostadin Kostadinov told reporters.

It is specified that the protests began in front of the EU country's central bank when protesters set fire to effigies of European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and other officials. Some waved flags of Bulgaria, the Soviet Union or East Germany, while others carried placards reading "We don't want the euro".

"About 10 police officers were lightly injured and about six people were detained," Reuters wrote, citing police.

Earlier on February 6, Russian Ambassador to Bulgaria Eleonora Mitrofanova said the Balkan state was in a protracted political crisis. She noted that the extraordinary elections to the Bulgarian parliament in the fall of 2024 became the seventh since 2021. In addition, she said, the EU's anti-Russian sanctions have seriously hit Bulgaria's economy.